Paul Kermack

A bereaved brother is troubled by memories of his twin who died at sea. Having returned to his childhood home, a Christmas celebration with his brother’s widow and her son goes horribly awry, as dark secrets and sibling rivalries return to haunt them - before the past can be laid to rest.

Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.

The true story of Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man.

The Highlands of Scotland. A fight outside the village hall. Robert Menzies lies dead and Allan Innes flees to the hills, pursued by Robert's brother. An old friend, Sandy Ross, tries to prevent the inevitable blood hunt.

The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.

When Jamie's maternal grandmother dies, he and his brother Tommy are separated - Tommy is taken off to a welfare home and Jamie goes to live with his other grandmother and uncle. His life is far from happy, filled with silence, rejection and bouts of violence.

Everybody tells Onnie to steer clear of Patsy Gallaher, that he's bad news, but Onnie doesn't see it. Gallaher is Onnie's friend, and he believes friends should be loyal to one another.

Three stories reflecting life in the Orkney Islands, two set in the past, and one in the present.